


Near/Far

by Skylark



Category: Seven Days (2015), Seven Days (Manga)
Genre: Alcohol, College, Established Relationship, Graduation, M/M, Multimedia, Post-Canon, Post-Graduation, Yobisute, background Mori Shino/Seryou Natsuki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Skylark
Summary: By the time Seryou gets through the crowd of adoring underclassmen, Yuzuru's second button is already gone.Graduations and bedrooms.
Relationships: Seryou Touji/Shino Yuzuru
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	Near/Far

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chromyrose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chromyrose/gifts).



> For my beautiful friend who showed me the Seven Days live action movies. ♥ Title from the Death Cab for Cutie song. 
> 
> It's a common graduation tradition to give the second button of your uniform to the one who loves you.
> 
> Image credits: [one](https://www.flickr.com/photos/charlotte90t/13541306765/in/photolist-mCAJJi-n2E1VR-2mBzC-7QaxNS-FETZLu-ER8UdZ-bCugfG-FfSHzb-eJWEc8-6csuo7-eK94hj-7KJyKm-eK91My-GxjHwr-6dp1pB-c1k6PC-n74Uym-7RR4Jz-FJ5MRa-6ctTi3-9wQXRv-eebDFp-zquD5-e7Suc6-58EXCZ-sjvKyG-9wiGyq-cdmzs-9LQnsB-9yxLfk-FrPjP-9xVXui-n86Qcp-aju7U-DwvpKN-4Jrdp3-7QiXvR-7STZW4-6ctTqY-zAsRFT-bMixbB-qwGXSZ-bxhv57-njFYQH-6d8Ra8-bMixhn-ERTRVg-7TvoJa-DmghuB-6edXQh) | two is a screencap from the movie | [three](https://www.flickr.com/photos/75304241@N00/252227161/in/photolist-ohJma-2BpCLU-buMHkU-2d3j9gU-jR9gc-2ahH9S9-2pjjpc-A8zQK-PwXutb-256uq4G-2gf5RvU-2cvt5Rh-7KFxCh-4fEHYP-fAALA7-717Wbe-6Y3MGz-91MvTL-a3ngbG-2guTCUZ-4x3p5f-5sJpbL-uunF1-bYUxhf-9apmTr-xuTns3-PJ19U-DkxKX9-DsNWDS-XAh75u-9uu261-5ZyYjo-9Wfjj6-5H9pfP-6BAxDh-CqHrs-6ZGnZ2-XcsuWU-771hJh-cht16L-cht11A-8YQ26-81WVJF-88g626-6ksBtH-9JijuE-CV7w4-h8UvZG-4J9Mu-UAuzJC) | [four](https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/university-life/housing/student-dormitories/international-house-kita-8-east/)

By the time Seryou gets through the crowd of adoring underclassmen, Yuzuru's second button is already gone.

Seryou freezes midway through reaching for Yuzuru's shoulder. He starts to step back and the surging crowd nearly swallows him whole. Then a hand reaches out to grab his own in a fierce grip, and when he looks up, Yuzuru is smiling at him.

"You're late," Yuzuru says, pulling him into a quick back-pounding hug.

"I'm never late," Seryou replies. Their hands are still linked, awkwardly squashed between them; Seryou's free arm dangles by his side, trapped by Yuzuru's embrace. 

"First time for everything, huh?" Yuzuru says, letting go. Their hands remain interlinked in the middle space. The girls around them coo over the pretty picture they make, a familiar refrain since they started this months ago. Their odd relationship is a common topic of discussion in the club: how it started, what Yuzuru sees in him. Sometimes Seryou chuckles to himself about it, feeling his love for Yuruzu like a small fire he shields in his palms. Other times, like this, he hates it. He wants to keep Yuzuru all for himself.

But then Yuruzu tilts his head and leans into Seryou's space, catching Seryou's downturned gaze. He smiles and pulls his hand away to curl Seryou's hand into a fist. Seryou's eyes widen at the small round shape he feels against his palm.

Here, in front of everyone—

"You're not even going to congratulate me?" Yuzuru says, still smiling.

Seryou just stares at him for a moment, mouth working silently. Yuzuru's grin widens with every passing moment.

Finally Seryou retracts his hand from where it's foolishly hanging in the air. He tucks it into his pocket, dropping Yuruzu's second button there. 

"I won't be there to walk you to class when you're at university," Seryou says. "Don't be late."

"But you'll still text, won't you?"

It hangs between them, a shared inside joke, and Yuzuru laughs. Seryou smiles back, the button warm in his pocket.

"Congratulations on your graduation, Yuzuru-san," he says.

\--

Yuzuru picks a university in Tokyo and lives at home for the duration. Seryou visits as often as he can. Sometimes they rent DVDs, sometimes they play video games. Seryou watches the light change behind Yuzuru's eternally-closed blackout curtains, how the days shorten and then lengthen again.

They study more as Seryou advances to second year. Yuzuru's university classes are less demanding than Seryou's, and as Seryou starts his third year Yuzuru spends hours drilling Seryou on entrance exam questions. 

Then Yuzuru lays Seryou out on his comforter and takes him apart, inch by slow inch, his warm breath puffing against bared and trembling skin. Seryou feels like a freshman again, his desire a living thing trying to claw its way out of his chest. It's so easy to drown in Yuzuru like this—so easy to stay too late and miss the last train, spending the night with Yuzuru tucked against his side, his breaths deep and heavy with sleep. The time he spends in Yuzuru's bedroom makes it feel like he never graduated; like time stands still at their behest. 

_Like this,_ he thinks. _The rest of my life, please, just like this._

\--

Yuzuru joins the archery club and a few study groups, but doesn't spend a lot of time on campus. Seryou doesn't visit him at university much, busy with his own archery club and his mounting schoolwork, but when he does he always hears Yuzuru's classmates complaining about how he never hangs out with them.

"Don't apologize," Yuzuru says just as Seryou is opening his mouth.

Seryou glances at him, and then takes a breath.

"I said don't," Yuzuru repeats. He sounds amused, but there's a hint of steel in his voice.

"You're supposed to be making connections," Seryou says anyway. "You're supposed to be enjoying yourself."

Yuzuru's silent for a moment, a thoughtful quiet. "I don't like drinking that much," he says, "and besides, I _am_ enjoying myself. With you."

Seryou still feels guilty about it, so to appease him Yuzuru goes out for a few mixers with his classmates. On those days, Seryou's phone goes off in the middle of the night and startles him awake.

"Hello?" he says, his voice raspy with sleep.

"I promised I'd call," Yuzuru says. He's slurring a little. "When I got home. No matter how late it was."

"Mm," Seryou says, rolling onto his back and squinting at the ceiling. It's hard to make out in the dark. His eyes droop closed again. "Uh-huh."

"I promised," Yuzuru says, a little louder, "so you can't get mad at me for waking you up."

"I'd never get mad at you for that, Yuzuru-san," he mumbles. "Did you have fun?"

"No," Yuzuru complains. "Rie-chan hit on me the entire time. I told her I was seeing someone and then everyone spent the rest of the time asking about you."

"Oh?" Seryou rouses a little at that. "What did you say?"

"That you're gorgeous," Yuzuru says, drawing it out: _gooor-geous_. "Have I ever told you that?"

Seryou smiles. "No," he says.

"Well, you are. And you're quiet, and kind, and taller than me even though you're two years my junior," he huffs. "What's up with that?"

"I can't help my height, Yuzuru-san."

"Yuzuru," he says.

"What?"

"Call me Yuzuru," he says. "We've been dating for years, enough already with the honorifics."

Seryou hesitates. "Maybe we can talk about it in the morning—"

"I won't change my mind in the morning," Yuzuru declares. "I've been thinking about it for a while now. Come on, say it." Seryou is quiet. "Say it," Yuzuru orders.

"Yuzuru-," he says, biting his lip. It feels strange, a small odd transgression. He tries again. "Yuzuru."

"Hm." Yuzuru breathes into the phone, an audible puff of air as he considers. "It sounds good in your mouth," he declares. "I like it. Call me that from now on."

"All right."

A small pocket of quiet settles around them. Seryou rolls onto his side, his phone's overheated battery pressing warmth against his face. 

"Can I call you by your first name too?"

"Maybe in the morning," Seryou says, wry humor in his voice. "You're slurring, you won't say it right."

Yuzuru laughs at that. "I should drink water and go to bed," he agrees. "Good night, Seryou."

"Good night," Seryou whispers, smiling.

\--

Seryou's dormitory is a narrow shoebox of a room, everything bleached a soulless white. The few things he brought with him are still in boxes.

"Did you need me to help you move in?" Yuzuru says, laughing. "You could have asked more directly."

"No, of course not," Seryou says, blinking at him. He reaches out and pulls him close. "You said you'd never visit my house. So I wanted you to know that..."

He trails off without finishing the sentence. Yuzuru is staring at him, confused. A bemused look crosses Seryou's face before he tries again.

"After I was accepted, they let us visit these dorms," Seryou continues. "And I thought, 'This reminds me of Yuzuru's room. I think he'd feel comfortable here.' I visited you so many times—I hope you can visit me too."

Yuzuru blinks as he understands. He scans the room again, looking at it with fresh eyes.

"Oi," he says finally. "Are you saying my room's a cramped little thing like this?"

"Your room is very nice, Yuzuru," he says, his eyes glimmering.

"Just because we don't all live in _mansions_ doesn't mean my room is _small,_ " Yuzuru snaps. "It'll be good for you to live in a shoebox like this! Learn how it feels to be a regular person!"

"Why don't you show me how it feels," Seryou purrs, stepping into Yuzuru's personal space. Even after all these years it's shocking to Yuzuru how playful Seryou can be when his switch is flipped: the flick of his gaze from Yuzuru's eyes to his mouth, the way his entire body sways against Yuzuru as if starved for him.

Well, Yuzuru thinks as Seryou fits his mouth against his, it's not like he's going to be seeing much of anything except the bed for the next while, anyway.

\--

Seryou graduates university and it's a fine thing, surrounded by everyone he loves. His brother brings Shino and Yuzuru barely glances at her. Seryou goes out drinking with his classmates afterward, and when Yuzuru comes along no one glances at him, either. 

They steal away from the drinking and karaoke to share a few kisses in the hazy dark.

"You're a free man now," Yuzuru says. "What are you going to do?"

"Be with you," Seryou murmurs against his mouth.

Yuzuru's had his own apartment for two years now, ever since he graduated. The next day, Seryou moves in.


End file.
